release date: Jan. 12, 2012
format: digital (10 x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,55]
producer: Mike Mogis
label: Wichita Recordings - nationality: Sweden
Track highlights: 1. "The Lion's Roar" - 2. "Emmylou" (4 / 5) (live at Polar Music Prize 2015) - 4. "Blue" - 6. "To a Poet" - 7. "I Found a Way" - 10. "King of the World"
2nd studio album by Swedish sister-duo First Aid Kit consisting of Johanna & (younger sister) Klara Söderberg.
This was the first album I listened to with the duo - initially, I only found it little original with its obvious copy of American-styled music of another era but along the way it's a fine celebration of style that hasn't been treated in the most positive manner in the past decades. The debut album The Big Black & the Blue (Jan. 2010) reveals more of purer and simplistic folk with attempts in bridging classic American folk tradition with vocal a capella harmonies. In this regard, The Lion's Roar is the duo's first obvious country AND folk album with a bolder classic line-up, still centered around the duo's vocal harmonies but with better worked-through arrangements, and it's really no wonder this signalled a major international breakthrough.
Recommended.
[ The Guardian 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,6 / 10, 👉Rolling Stone, 👍PopMatters 3,5 / 5 stars ]
